With the popularization of smartphones, mobile payment has become an indispensable part of our daily life: payment can be completed with just a simple scan of the QR code. However, mobile payment also has its limitations, such as sometimes forgetting to bring our phone, running out of battery, or even losing it. In this situation, taking the subway or purchasing goods will be restricted.

Fortunately, the development and innovation of technology have provided us with more choices. Based on the current development trend, after facial payment, palm payment may become another novel payment method.

What is mobile payment?

Simply put, it is a technology that identifies users through the palmprint on their palms and achieves contactless payment. It fully utilizes the unique and complex vascular patterns on each person's palm, treating the palm as a personal "biometric card" for interaction. Compared with fingerprint recognition, palm recognition has the advantages of large recognition area and high efficiency.

In my experience, compared to traditional password and physical card payments, swipe payment has the following advantages:

High safety, the patterns formed by the subcutaneous vascular structure of the palm are very complex and cannot be forged, greatly preventing the risk of stealing brushes;

Convenient and efficient, palm swiping payment is a completely contactless operation that does not require taking out a phone, memorizing passwords, or carrying cards, making payment faster and more efficient;

Clean and hygienic, non-contact payment method to prevent the spread of bacteria due to contact with the screen when going out;

To prevent loss, the palm can be scanned and used under normal circumstances, avoiding the risk of funds being stolen after the loss of mobile phones and physical cards.

The first mobile payment product launched in China is WeChat mobile payment. Starting from May 2021, WeChat officially launched this service. In the initial stage, it was mainly used in scenarios such as the Beijing Metro Daxing Airport Line and Shenzhen Super Gorilla. Subsequently, WeChat accelerated its expansion speed and expanded its services to over 1500 stores, including 7-11 convenience stores, in September 2022. Users only need to register their palm print according to the requirements and can "swipe" to complete the payment. At the same time, Alipay also began to deploy palm biometrics in the second half of 2022, but has not yet launched experience products.

Technically speaking, compared to fingerprint and facial recognition, the biggest advantage of palm swiping payment is its high recognition accuracy and difficulty in forgery. Because each person's palm blood vessel pattern is extremely unique, it is difficult to steal other people's palm data for personal use through simple rubbings. In addition, compared to the operation of taking out a phone from a pocket or bag for payment, simply swiping the palm is more instant and convenient.

At the same time, mobile payment is also constantly expanding its application areas.

For example, on campus, it is possible to achieve library check-in, food purchase, and other needs by swiping the palm; In the mall, simply swipe your palm to complete functions such as member scanning, shopping, and payment; Even in the future, we may achieve a series of interactive needs from bank withdrawals to taking taxis and accessing the internet with just one hand when going out.

▲ "Palm payment" settled on university campuses

With more personal biometric data participating in financial services, the use of mobile payments has also raised concerns about privacy breaches. At present, major platforms declare that user palm print data is only used in palm brushing services and will not be transmitted to third parties. But once data is leaked, it is difficult to control the consequences. In addition, the palm recognition technology still needs further improvement, and the recognition rate needs to be improved in complex lighting or wet hands.